Separation of Duties

The basic principle of separation of duties is that no individual person, role, or group, should be able to execute all parts of a transaction or process. A simple example serves to clarify this principle: a single person should not be judge, jury, and executioner.

In practice, separation of duties is a loss-control measure designed to reduce the risk of accidental or intentional damage to the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of a transaction or process. It serves three primary purposes:

Reduce the risk of conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict of interest

Reduce the risk of errors, fraud, abuse, theft, or other wrongful actions.